Friday, February 17, 2017

This painting was started by using a messy background that was accomplished by using inks, acrylics, heavy body gel medium and stencils for texture. You can see the texture of the gel medium being utilized in the fish and some raised letters and symbols hidden in the background. I used some drywall tape and randomly smooshed some medium into the holes and it worked to give me some texture and direction in the painting, I like this method of intuitive painting because it does not force the work, it just allows it to develop naturally.
When I was working on this I had to make a few adjustments as I went. The biggest challenge was connecting the human and fish form This is where I added the tongue with the fishing line - problem solved. For added interest, you can also find some charcoal pencil mark making and a fun foam fish stamp that I pulled from my collection.

Monday, December 5, 2016

One of my more favorite Gelli paintings as I love everything chicken. Having a small flock is one of the reasons we moved out of the city and into a community that is chicken friendly.

So to honor this funny little man I pulled a page from my paper journal and just went at it. One of the benefits of painting on either a toned or pattern background is that not only does the mid tone color of the underpainting works to tie the painting together, but the subtle texture in the print can add a certain je nais saia quoi, even of you only see specks of it here and there. You can see that interesting pattern come through in the area behind the waddle and in the eye area and it really lends itself to adding the texture without having to paint it. I love it!

As 2017 is the Chinese year of the rooster I plan on completing a set of these paintings to be sold in art card form so stay tuned.

I hope this inspire you to grab some supplies and play. If you enjoy these pieces just remember that sharing is caring.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

This painting is an example of recovering from a major disaster. Everything was going along wonderfully and I was using my black paint pen to add some details when it exploded - see the viewers left eye - and when I was sopping it up I touched the paper towel on the shoulder area. Ugh.

As I had originally intended, this is a little demo on how I achieved the final painting even through adversity.

This art journal is nothing fancy, a plain lined paper notebook, it's about 5*8, with a tough vinyl cover , that I picked up from the dollar store. Some of the pages I have gessoed, some have been decoupaged, and some papers are Gelli print one-offs - like this one. The only reason I like to use this one is because I like the size of it.

I didn't have any idea when I started on what I was going to do with this sheet. I try and use the most patterned part of the paper as the focal point. So I took my blue watercolor pencil and sketched out a basic cat shape. Even when I am just working in a sketchbook I am still thinking about some basic design principals, but I am not too concerned with too many details, you will be surprised on how many of those are created just because of the background pattern.

Now start to carve out your image by painting the negative shape. I used a blue-grey wash to ghost the image so that some of the background still shows through. Use a light touch at first. It is a lot easier to cover mistakes in a thin wash than a thick opaque line. When that is dry, I finger painted the rest of the background letting the colors mix on the paper.

Add your details. For this I used a black oil pastel, this works well for blending and adding that furry fuzz illusion to your cat. Paint the eyes, don't forget those highlights. There is no way you can ever recreate this painting as no two Gelli papers are the same but I hope you are inspired to try out this idea. Remember its only paint.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

We have seen these deer head pillows everywhere, so I though while we are recovering from the flu, sitting around watching the CFL football semi finals, I thought I would try my hand at this project. I used micro suede and flannel scraps for this project, which makes it very cuddly as well. Yes "Multi tasker" is my middle name LOL

There are alot of patterns on the web for deer head printables, this is the one I chose.

Copy your pattern to the wrong side of your applique fabric and iron down according to the instructions, then cut out the shape.

Remove the paper backing and position the pattern on your cover piece of fabric and iron down.

Select a narrow, close set, zig zag stitch and slowly work your way around the pattern. Remember always leave needle down when turning around a corner. Pin and sew on the back panels, with a straight stitch and then zig zag for stability. Clip your corners, flip right side out and poke out your corner. Insert your pillow form. Sit back and listen to your guests ooohhh and ahhhhhh. :) Every pillow is different but these are some of the standard measurements for cutting your pattern pieces for the envelope pillow.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Hi everyone, so nice to be back in the world of creative expression. I really miss these days as I don't get a lot of time to do it anymore with going back to school and family responsibilities.

4.5" * 7"

Mixed media (paper, canvas, acrylic, ink, oil pencil, chalk)

I was working on some printing some Gelli papers for our Christmas gift tags. This is an easy project to create with very minimal, inexpensive supplies and are beautiful in many other applications as well. I used regular craft acrylic, card stock, a homemade permanent Gelli plate and some store bought and hand cut stencils and stamps.
I really don't like wasting such beautiful papers so with the left overs from our tags, I decided to cover a canvas with 1 inch tiles using the printed paper with Modge Podge and after deliberating for a while I decided to add this cute bunny painting. I left some of the background prints showing through as this will add dimension and to the painting. Finally add some details with a permanent ink pen and called it a day.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Happy Groundhog day. For those of you that don't know what the meaning of this day is. It is the mid point of winter. YEAH!!!! And to celebrate we bring the groundhog (an oversized gopher) out of his den (cage) to see if he sees his shadow. If he does it means 6 more weeks of winter and if he doesn't than spring is supose to come early. For this part of the country it is gaurenteed we will have 6 more weeks of winter and it has been a very long winter so far. lol Finally we are getting some beautiful weather but as the snow disappears the brown lawn emerges. I am in desperate need of COLOR. :D So I drew out a couple of Macaw parrot profiles and am working them up 2 different ways. This is the first one and he was done with a combination of tangle patterns and brightly colored watercolors. So much fun. Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Well after a month of continous visitors I am hoping things will start to clam down around here and I can get back to some serious work. :) This is a little tree frog ACEO I managed to fit in this week. He measures 2.5 * 3.5 in and is created using watercolor on 140lb CP Arches paper. Hope you enjoy.
SOLD

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Good morning everyone. Well the holiday company has started.... and it wont end till January now. :0 But I have managed to fit this piece in over the past few days. It is 8 * 10.5 inch Ink on AF paper. I love this form of art. I dont have to put much thought into the planning process, I just squiggle a line... flip the paper around until I find my image and the rest is just instinct. Lights against darks, Open patterns against closed patterns. I Love it! and hope you do to.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

My kitchen table is been taken over with pre-school books, so ive had to resort to changing my artistic expression from medium/large sized works to whatever fits into the palm of my hand and can be moved quickly. LOL I dont mind because my 4 year old has been writing, spelling and sounding out words and starting to catch on to column adding. :) My 2.5 year old is a parrot so anything that we are working on that day is being picked up by X as well. I LOVE IT! So with that said this is my latest little creature card ive been able to fit in. Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Over the weekend Artist Network was offering their free video weekend. In light of recent events I havent been much in the creative mood so this was a little kick start in the creative department. Inspired by Karlyn Holman, Watercolor without Boundries, this little tree frog aceo was created using a toothpick to paint in the black acrylic and traditional brush painting for the watercolor portions. Hope this inspires you to try something new.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Every once in a while I get a chance to stop by my favorite artists site and participate in their weekly drawing event. You try and complete a painting in 2 hours from 16 reference images provided by a different host every week.
This week I managed to get 2 done during nap. I guess when you are on a roll it just flows out of you, it also helps that I havent unpacked my travel painting bin from holidays,;) oops, so I had all supplies ready and at hand.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

A quick painting to get me back in the swing of things. The reference image comes from Dewi over at Wetcanvas WDE. This is a weekly drawing event where participants are given 16 images to choose from and 2 hours to create. This week I chose this lovely creature because I Love cows. They have such personality and are really hard for me to turn down when given the chance to paint them. ;) He looks a little chilly standing in the middle of a frozen field.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Hi everyone. Well TGIF. Early in the week I had to take my computer into the doctor - It wasnt feeling very well. I think it came down with a virus. ;) lol But it is back up and running, so that means back to work. :)
Spring is in the air, and there is a little more of a hop to everyones step so I decided to go big and bold. Well big compared to what I have been doing. :)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

I was inspired to paint this big momma elephant by a reference photo taken by "exfordy" over at Flicker. Its not a position that I would want to be in. According to the story, the week before a Japanese tourist was killed after getting out of his car to take pictures and admire these magnificent animals. We have the same problem here in Banff.. ppl getting out of their cars to admire the baby bear cubs, or the cute little baby moose. What they dont understand is they have very protective Momma's close by and they will give you a licken if your not paying attention. LOL
Anyways this is another miniature
2.75 * 2.75 inch
artist grade acrylics on stretched canvas
initialed on front and signed/dated on back
included in sale is a miniature display easel
$25.00 ***FREE SHIPPING WITHIN NORTH AMERICA

Friday, April 23, 2010

Hi everyone. Well summer is quickly moving in in this neck of the woods so I have been busy digging my garden beds and planting some vedgies. I already have onions, radishes, spinach, carrots and beets coming up. :) As well I have been busy with getting 3 back to back commission pieces - in pencil. Kinda funny since I usually work in watercolors. hmmm. Thinking maybe I should rethink my focus. LOL Anyways this is my latest. It is a picture of "Lad" a border collie with a wonderful story behind him. In the reference picture one of Lad's eyes was closed - so I opened it up and added a stick in the foreground - I guess he is a fetcher. :) Working with black fur is not easy. Even though it looks black there are 3-4 values within those darks. Good morning. :) So in this installment the fur is starting to "fluff" up and you can start to see the many shadows involved in the underside of the puppy. Also the woodwork is starting to get some texture in it. I am also going to be going back in and adjust his eyes a bit they seem to be a little harsh right now. So far I have only used f, h, hb mech and 2b mech. In the next installment I am going to be popping in some deep darks probably with my 6b. (This would be a good time for me to find my handy value scale to see exactly how dark I can go.)
I dont know if this piece is more a work of pencils or erasers.
It was all about the woodwork yesterday, focusing most of my attention on the wagon wheel and the fence posts. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, a little work to do on softening lad's fur and adding a little spotty grass to fill in some of the empty space but it is really starting to sing now. :)
9 * 11.75
Graphite on #300 series Bristol

Got a little carried away with the grass got into the zone and one blade turned into 2 and... well you know. ;) But I dont think it is overworked - it just adds another texture into this drawing. Hope you enjoy!

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Tammy Morrison-Koenig retains the copyrights to all of her paintings and the photographers own copyrights to images of their photos. Written permission must be secured before any image may be copied, printed, distributed, modified or displayed.Contact me via tampster1@hotmail.com for purchase informationAll of my work are handpainted originals, and will be packaged and shipped with the utmost care.